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A Country of extreme diversity, Nepal spreads
to the greatest Himalayas on the north, the
(Terai) lowlands to the south at a very short
distant. The lofty mountains, quaint villages
with its colorful festivals of various ethnic
tribes, raging rivers and dense forest with
rare endangered wildlife make it a unique
country with a difference, and a paradise
for nature adventure lovers.
Before the 1960's it was an old hunting reserve
for the Royalties and the dignitaries, Chitwan
was established in 1973 as the first National
Park of Nepal, and in 1984 it was declared
as the Natural Heritage site by UNESCO. The
1000 Sq Km areas covers the Siwalik range
with deciduous forest overlooking the flood
plains. This is the richest habitat in the
land with tall grasslands interspersed with
riverine and hardwood sal forest . Here one
can see wildlife such as the swamp deer, musk
deer, black buck, blue bull, the royal Bengal
tiger, gharial and marsh mugger crocodile
and the last of a breed of Asiatic wild buffalo.
This area is also rich in birdlife with a
variety of babbles and orioles, koels and
drongos, peacocks and floricans, and a multitude
of wintering wildfowl. Chitwan now offers
protection to a wilderness of rich ecosystem
that includes more then 50 spices of animals,
such as the. one-horned rhinoceros, tiger,
leopard, sloth bear and the gaur (wild bison),
as well as over 500 spices of birdlife both
resident and migratory.
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The Chitwan valley is characterized
by tropical to subtropical forest. 70% of
park vegetation is predominantly Sal ( Shorea
robusta ) forest, a moist deciduous climax
vegetation type of the Terai region. The
remaining vegetation types include grassland
(20%), riverine forest (7%) and Sal with
Chirpine ( Pinus roxburghii ) (3%), the
latter occurring at the top of the Churia
range. The riverine forests mainly consists
of khair, sissoo and simal. The simal is
with spiny bark when young and develops
buttress at the bottom in older stage. The
grasslands form a diverse and complex community
with over 50 species. The Sacchrum species,
often called elephant-grass can reach 8
m in height. The shorter grasses such as
Imperata is useful for thatch roofs. |
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There are more than 43 species of mammals
in the park. The park is specially renowned
for the protection of the endangered one-horned
rhinoceros, tiger, gharial crocodile along
with many other common species of wild
animals. The estimated population of endangered
species of animals such as gaur, wild
elephant, four horned antelope, striped
hyena, pangolin, gangetic dolphin, monitor
lizard and python, etc.
Some of the other animals found in the
park are samber, chital, hog deer, barking
deer, sloth bear, common leopard, ratel,
palm civet, wild dog, langur, rhesus monkey,
etc. |
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There are over 450 species of birds in
the park. Among the endangered birds found
in the park are Bengal florican, giant hornbill,
lesser florican, black stork and white stork,
Few of the common birds seen are peafowl,
red jungle fowl, and different species of
egrets, herons, kingfishers, flycatchers and
woodpeckers. The best time for bird watching
is March and December.
More than 45 species of amphibians and reptiles
occur in the park and some of which are marsh
mugger crocodile, cobra, green pit viper and
various species of frogs and tortoises.
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The park is under the tropical monsoon climate
with relatively high humidity. The winter,
spring and monsoon are the three main seasons.
The cool winter season occurs from October
to February. The spring begins in March and
is soon followed by summer that ends in early
June. The summer days are typically hot with
30 C on average day temperature. The monsoon
usually begins at the end of June and continues
until September. The mean annual rainfall
is about 2150 mm and most of the rainfall happens during this time of the year.
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